President Donald Trump on Tuesday told The Daily Caller that he was never “given messages” that famed reporter Bob Woodward had tried to contact him to interview him for his new book about the Trump White House, and claimed he “probably would have spoken to him if he’d called.”
Woodward did call.
In a transcript of the conversation published by The Washington Post on Tuesday, Woodward walked Trump through his attempts to establish contact with the President through several of his aides and allies, including White House counsel Kellyanne Conway and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Woodward made the calls when he had finished up the manuscript of “Fear” and Trump ended the call by maligning Woodward’s reporting — despite not yet reading the book.
“It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems,” Trump told the Caller on Tuesday. “I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way.”
“It’s just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn’t given messages that he called,” he continued. “I probably would have spoken to him if he’d called, if he’d gotten through. For some reason I didn’t get messages on it.”